There is silence around Madwa mountain, about 10 kilometers away from Jamui city of Bihar.
Journalists working at the national level in expensive SUVs, local YouTubers on their motorcycles and occasionally some local politicians come and go here.
The people living around Madwa mountain look at everyone with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity.
When journalists ask local people what happened, almost everyone reluctantly answers, 'I don't know anything'.
But the person asking and answering the question knows which incident is being talked about.
They know that they are talking about the video in which a group of youth sexually assaulted a minor girl and assaulted her minor friend near Madwa mountain.
Even after this video went viral, no patrolling vehicle of Jamui Police is visible even far and wide in the area.
Jamui Police has detained three minor boys in this case and till now have arrested two accused Hareram Yadav and Nandan Yadav.
Some other people are also being detained and interrogated.
Late on the night of 21st September, a video of the incident that took place on the road just below Madwa mountain in Jamui went viral on social media.
In the video, some youth are seen sexually assaulting a minor girl.
In the video, the friend of the minor girl, who is also a minor, is continuously trying to save her but the youth are also beating him.
According to Jamui Superintendent of Police (SP) Vishwajit Dayal, "This video came to our notice on the morning of September 22. On the basis of the video footage, the minor student was identified and her statement was recorded. The father of the minor student gave an application, on the basis of which an FIR was lodged. Later, an SIT was formed and the accused were arrested."
According to the timeline shared by the police, at 6.25 pm on September 19, the student had gone out on a scooter with a friend. About 20 minutes later, when the student and her friend were taking photographs on Madwa mountain, seven-eight local youths came and sexually assaulted the student.
After this incident, the student went to her home, but she did not mention this incident to anyone.
The girl told this to her father on the night of 20 September.
The girl's father spoke to BBC Hindi on phone.
He told that the girl is still fine. The father said, "The girl had told this out of fear on the night of September 20. Later the police took her statement and filed an FIR."
He says, "We need protection from those people. We want the criminals to get the harshest punishment. My daughter had gone wearing a black shirt. I have told the police that she had gone wearing a black shirt which these people pulled and opened."
In the FIR registered on September 21, sections 74,76,3(5) of BNS and section 8/12 of POCSO Act have been imposed.
Section 8/12 of the POCSO Act deals with sexual assault against children.
Also, Jamui Police has filed an FIR against 120 social media profiles for sharing this video in the cyber police station. Also, the police has appealed to the common people not to share the video.
In this case, the police had detained three minor boys on September 21, i.e. after the FIR was registered. Whereas the two main accused Hareram Yadav and Nandan Yadav were arrested on the morning of 22 September.
Both of them are residents of Pratappur village, located at some distance from Madwa mountain.
According to SP Vishwajeet Dayal, "A cordon was laid to arrest Nandan Yadav in which he opened fire. The police fired in self-defense in which Nandan Yadav was shot. Nandan Yadav's father Ganauri Yadav has also been arrested. A case has been registered against Ganauri Yadav in the murder case that took place in the year 2003."
Jamui Police has said that both of them are involved in illegal liquor and sand business. Other criminal history of these people is also being investigated.
The police are talking about the arrest on 22nd September, but the neighbors of Nandan and Hareram Yadav in Pratappur village say that the police took them away around 12 o'clock in the night on 21st September.
After this arrest, the BBC team went to the house of these two accused on the morning of 23 September. Nandan Yadav's house was locked, whereas at Hareram Yadav's house only his grandparents were found, who refused to talk.
After these arrests, there is a lot of anger in the village, especially in Yadav Tola.
Nandan's neighbor Arvind Kumar Yadav tells BBC, "Nandan did not even live here. He had come to meet his parents 10 days ago. The police are saying that he used to do liquor business but he did not even live here. He came to see his parents and got trapped here. He had not even made any video. Others trapped him by making a video."
Local Seema Devi says, "She has been trapped and had the girl gone to the mountain at night to study coaching. Why was she taking photographs there at night?"
When asked whether someone gets the right to misbehave with a girl when she goes to get her photo clicked or at night? On this question, Soni Devi accepts that misbehaving with a girl is wrong.
In this part of the village, i.e. in Yadav Tola, most of the women and men repeatedly say that 'it was the girl's fault.'
But when they go to another part of the village, the villagers consider this entire incident wrong.
Local resident Samta says, "People should understand that what happened to someone else's daughter today can happen to my daughter too."
Shahid Ansari from the same village says, "Who are we to interfere in the way a boy or a girl is roaming around? It is no one's right to decide what someone will wear or what I will wear."
BBC also spoke to the families of two minors detained in this case.
One of them said, "No parent tells their children to go and do such wrong things. I also have a daughter. If something bad happens to her, I will also feel bad. I work as a laborer and I don't know what my son does. He is studying. The police has caught him and taken him away. I don't know whether my son has done any wrong thing or not?"
The father of another minor told the BBC, "My son told that on the evening of September 19, when noise started near the mountain, he had gone there. He was playing cricket. On the 21st, when he was returning after giving his exam, the police caught him. His mother has been found by him. I have not even met him."
Local people also claimed during the conversation that this was not the first incident of violence against girls and women.
Madwa Pahad is a place to visit for the local people.
This mountain is situated barely a few kilometers away from Jamui city, due to which people from Jamui city also come to visit here. Jamui district, surrounded by hills, shares its border with Lakhisarai district of Bihar.
Kiul river flows barely one kilometer away from Madwa mountain. One can enter the border of Lakhisarai district through the bridge built on this river. Their children's schools and coaching centers all fall within the limits of Jamui district, the route of which passes through the Madwa mountain.
On reaching Lakhisarai district, the first settlement is a place named Kundar Tola.
People of this group told BBC that incidents of crime keep happening around Madwa mountain and violence against girls and women is common.
Shanti Devi of this group tells BBC, "Our path is the same. Be it daughter-in-law or daughter, these people (the accused in this case) tease everyone in front of them and talk dirty. A few days ago, these people had stopped my daughter-in-law and blocked the girl's path with a motorcycle. These people used to do this every time, but this time the video went viral and the matter of these people came to light."
Dashrath Ram even made his granddaughter drop out of school. He says, "She used to study in BA but these people used to molest her every day. Now no one will watch her every day. She used to go to coaching where she would get late sooner or later. When it became too much, I left my studies."
A student living near Pratappur village said, "When we and our parents do not feel safe, then how will our parents send us outside to study."
After this incident came to light, Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav has once again cornered the government on the issue of law and order.
He said, "Girls are not safe in Bihar. Be it day or night, school or road or hostel, inside the house or outside the house."
JDU state president Umesh Singh Kushwaha called this incident 'sporadic'.
He said, "Today, if any sporadic incident happens, the government is sensitive about it. But remember the Lalu Raj before 2005, how Bihar was. No one used to come out of the house."
Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary's statement given in a private program on September 22 is also controversial in which he had said, "Nowadays only reels are being made. I repeatedly tell the criminals that why do you challenge my police? If you challenge, you will get a reply within 24 hours. These days people are being killed in the process of making a reel. You must have seen today's incident, if he had not made a reel, would he have been caught? That's why how many people died in the process of making a reel. Will you go?
